Start of the War Afganistan

I would like to look back at recent history a bit, looking for the start of the problems that now have resulted in the war in Afganistan.

First of all, why Afganistan? Afganistan is a long way from the United States, and as far as I know the only export from Afanistan to the United States is Heroin, which the government of the United States claims to discourage. As far as I know there are no natural resources that Afganistan has that the United States doesn't have.

Looking backwards, Osama bin Laden claims to be upset with the United States because of the the Gulf war. Now I will not try to justify the United States actions in the international scene since the Second World War, but I can ask, "Why was the United State in Iraq?"

Most people, and I suppose historians, will say for Oil. That is, the United States would not have been in Iraq if there were no oil in the region. And there is justification for this. The United States did not intervene in so many places, Rowanda, Cambodia, etc., even Afganistan when there was a bloody war after the Soviet Union left.

Most international observers would probably agree that if the Carter policy of only supporting governments with a decent human rights record had been followed we would not have been in Iraq, and probably not in Afganistan.

I remember the Iran-Iraq war. At first the United States did not take sides. The reason was that the United States considered both sides "guilty" in this matter. Neither was a friend of the United States.

Yet, the United States did take sides. Reagan was president, and eventually his administration decided to support Iraq, which resulted in and end to the war.

Suppose that the Unites States hadn't intervened. It is very likely that the war would have kept up, perhaps even to today since there was no real advantage of one side over the other. There would have been no Gulf war because Iraq would have been spending so many of its resourse on the stupid war with Iran that Sadam would not have had the resources for a war with Kawat, hence no Gulf war.

Yet, there were problems in the area before that. Consider the problems with Iran. The United States was involved in Iran since helping to install the Shaw in 1956 (Ike administration). This offended some Iranians. That is, it brought the United States up on their radar screen. Therefore, when the Komani decided to overthrow the Shaw, he could easily get some support.